Who says that only rich people can be philanthropists? Well, most people do. But a Hetq article (in Armenian) proves this “common knowledge” to be false.

Ashot Grigoryan from Yerevan (Armenia's capital), 24, has been raised in orphanages and slept in streets for five years. For a while, he has joined the totalitarian Jehovah’s Witnesses sect, but later left the group.

How does Ashot help others if he has nothing? According to the interesting article, he collects food from various charity organizations and distributes to the homeless. He has also provided the cement for the reconstruction of the old St. John (Surb Hovhannes) cathedral of Yerevan by convincing a business to support the cause.

With his poor education, Ashot is also a talented poet. With my untalented skills of translation, here is one of his poems (from Armenian):

For me you are like lighthouse in the dark;
In my soul you are a warm Sun.
You are sweeter than the flavor of thousands of flowers.
Oh my kind friend, my love of life.

But actually you do not exist, my worthy and kind Mother.
You actually left me in the dark, making me homeless; making me bloody.

(excerpt from Ashot’s “To My Mother” poem)

Our good friend Ara Ashjian from Iraq has recently established his own blog, posting articles concerning Armenian issues in English and in Arabic.

The number of blogians is growing (blogian is the Armenianized version of “blog.” Like the Jewish version would be blogstein or blogman). I invite all blogians to register their blogs at www.hayastan.com (register, not transfer). You can set up your existing blogs at Hayastan.com’s community blog list, in which case by clicking on your Hayastan blog one will appear on your original website.

Cars at a complete standstill, are pictured during a traffic jam in a central square in the Armenian capital Yerevan, February 16, 2006. Heavy snowfall caused traffic jams paralysing the city on Thursday. REUTERS/PHOTOLURE/Mkhitar Khachatrian

According to Azerbaijani newspaper BakuToday, Azerbaijan has submitted a proposal to Council of Europe to expel Armenia from the organization.

A Hate Cartoon in Azerbaijan

The Azerbaijani request has specified the list of Armenian crimes: "Armenians are engaged in creating terrorist training camps, growing narcotics in the occupied territories, drug trafficking, as well as conducting nuclear research and building facilities there to store nuclear waste, the report said."

No wonder why Azerbaijani Ramil Safarov would murder his sleeping Armenian classmate after having so much "information!"

The European Parliament has adopted yet another resolution concerning the destruction of the ancient Armenian cemetery of Old Julfa in Nakhichevan by the Azerbaijani army. Similar condemnation was expressed in an earlier resolution.

The new resolution is being “objective” by also calling on Armenia not to destroy Azerbaijani monuments. Nevertheless, no case of state-planned or other kind of vandalism against a Muslim/Azerbaijani monument in Armenia is cited in the resolution.

European Parliament is trying to stop the destruction of the Armenian heritage by saying “oh, you guys both should not do such things!” so that Azerbaijan does not get mad again.

Parliament strongly condemns the destruction of the Djulfa cemetery as well as the destruction of all sites of historical importance that has taken place on Armenian or Azerbaijani territory, and condemns any such action that seeks to destroy the cultural heritage of a people. It calls on the Council and the Commission to make clear to Armenia and Azerbaijan that all efforts must be made to stop the practice of ethnic cleansing which has led to such actions, and to find ways to facilitate the gradual return of refugees and displaced people.

I guess I would buy this political step, if it indeed stopped the Azerbaijani government from its vandalistic policy against the Armenian heritage. But I am afraid nothing will stop Azerbaijan in its mission of cleansing the Armenian memory. And to tell the truth, there is not a lot left in Nakhichevan to destroy…

And I said to myself, “What a wonderful world!”

p.s. to feel the above quote, visit www.julfa.cjb.net and watch Azerbaijani soldiers destroying the last Christian headstones (some as old as the 8th century) in Hin Jugha (December 2005).

The resolution is available here.

As the Artyom Reader points out, “The Russian language Day.az is reporting that the National Democratic Party of Azerbaijan has made the murderer Ramil Safarov as its poster boy by declaring him to be the coveted ‘Man of the Year.’” Ramil Safarov, who murdered an Armenian officer in 2004, is on trial in Hungary.

The “National Democratic Party of Azerbaijan” is the Baku chapter of Bozkurt (Grey Wolves) Turkish fascist organization, which is listed as terrorist organization in the Encyclopedia of Terrorism.

Photo: Ramil Safarov's headshot from an Azerbaijani hatesite, reading "He Defended the Honor of the Homeland!" in Russian. Ramil Safarov, a Lieutenant of the Azerbaijani Army, hacked to death Gurgen Margaryan of Armenia, 26, while he was asleep on 19 February 2004. Both were participants of an English language training course within the framework of the NATO-sponsored “Partnership for Peace” program held in Budapest, Hungary. More on the murder at http://budapest.sumgait.info/.

According to Day.az, Safarov was also “inducted” as an honorary member of the Grey Wolves.

The head of the Baku Bozkurt, as Artyom Reader translates from Russian, said:

I really don’t care as to how Ramil Safarov killed the Armenian officer (Gurgen Margaryan). What really matters is the fact there is one less Gurgen in the world, and the more Azerbaijanis kill Armenians the less of them (Armenians) will be present (in the world).

Blogian will be publishing an exclusive report on Bozkurt (based on Bozkurt documents) soon.

Associated Press reports about a fake charity, called Global Human Services, which basically did undercover car shipments to some countries, including Armenia.

A Google search indicates that this network of violators was based in Glendale, California, which makes us assume that the group was Armenian (since Glendale is almost an Armenian city).

Even "moderate" Glendale Armos (Armenians from the Republic of Armenia) have a photo of their car at their homes

Glendale is infamous for some of its Armenian “heroes.” My theory is that, generally speaking, lower class and uneducated people emigrate from Armenia to California. There are indeed also great people living in Glendale, but there have been enough “incidents” that have led “Glendale Armenians” to be stereotyped as [censored].

LOS ANGELES Los Angeles police say they've helped smash an international fraud ring disguised as a charity. It allegedly shipped top-end cars and S-U-V's to Jordan, Armenia, Russia and the Republic of Georgia.
Police say the multi-layered rip-off went like this:

The ring would buy vehicles from individuals, then ship them overseas hidden in containers labeled as donated goods. The original sellers would report the cars stolen to collect insurance money. The ring would sell the cars overseas.

Police estimate the bogus charity, Global Human Services, shipped five (m) million dollars' worth of cars, about 200 to 400 vehicles. About a dozen have been recovered.

Eight people have been arrested in the L-A area. Eleven others are being sought.

UPDATE: A LOS ANGELES TIMES article confirmed Blogian's assumptions that the group was Armenian.

Washington Post (PBS Panel on Armenian Genocide Stirs Protest: Broadcaster Defends Inclusion of Deniers of Mass Killing by Turks) writes about the protest of some Americans (mostly of Armenian heritage) who are offended with the decision of PBS to show penal discussion with participation of genocide deniers. On 17 April 2006, PBS (America's Public Broadcasting Station), will be broadcasting a 1-hour documentary called "the Armenian Genocide" and will be followed by a penal discussion.

Armenian Americans have publicized an online petition that asks PBS to drop the discussion program. As of last night, more than 6,000 people had electronically added their names to the petition, making it one of the largest organized protests of a PBS program.

A PBS representative has confessed that "such an approach is rare for PBS and said that the Alexandria-based service has not had other panels to discuss opposing views of documentaries during her five-year tenure."

Interesting thing about the article is that it "forgets" to mention that Prof. Taner Akcam, one of the "debaters" is a Turk. Prof. Akcam, in a group e-mail, said that the panel discussion was not a discussion about whether the Armenian genocide happened.

As of last night, more than 6,000 people had electronically added their names to the petition, making it one of the largest organized protests of a PBS program.

Genocide denier McCarthy, on the other hand, has given a very dramatic answer to the Washington Post: "If saying that both sides killed each other makes me a genocide denier, then I'm a denier."

6000 thousands people signing a petition in a few days? That sounds like a lot! But let me tell you that getting the news about Old Julfa's recent destruction would have been much more important. I guess we need 90 years before we do something about Armenian heritage being currently destroyed in Azerbaijan and in Turkey. Well, long way to go.

The looted Armenian monastery of Makaravank (Magaravank) in Turkish-occupied Northern Cyprus, according to Azg Daily, will be returned to the Armenian community.

Magaravank (from www.sarafyan.com)

Turkish Cypriot newspaper YENIDUZEN reported last year (17 April 2005) that the monastery was leased to Turkish businessman Dervis Sonmeazler for 49 years. The monastery was supposed to function as a 50 bed capacity hotel (according to a 1998 article from Kibris). The recent annulment of the agreement, according to Azg, was made by the Department of Historic Monuments and Museums of Northern Cyprus.

Makaravank, which originally started as a Coptic Orthodox church, was founded in the 5th century.

The Armenian Genocide Memorial in occupied Cyprus desecrated by local Turks (from Peter Balakian's visit to Cyprus)

St. Mother God (Astvatsatsin) Armenian church in Turkish-occupied Cyprus is also looted and desecrated. The Armenian Genocide Memorial has also been desecrated by the Turks: they have “converted” it into a satellite dish holder.

David Horowitz’s “The Professors: The 100 Most Dangerous Academicians in America” (released January 2006) includes information about American professors who have “abused” their “academic freedom.”

Photo: Prof. Algar (from www.iranica.com)

Writing on Horowitz’s book, Bernard Chapin reminds, “Hamid Algar remains at his post after correcting Armenian students about the liquidation of their people by the Turks: ‘It was not a genocide, but I wish it were, you lying pigs.’”

Algar, an advocate for global jihad, is listed as anti-American professor at http://www.discoverthenetwork.org/individu….asp?indid=1231. According to the same website, UC Berkeley professor Algar has addressed Berkeley Armenian students by saying, "You are distorting the truth about history. You stupid Armenians; you deserve to be massacred!"

ALGAR IS NOT THE REASON I WANT TO TRANSFER TO BERKELEY!